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PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. – Another Detroit Tigers starting rotation spot could be up for grabs.

With just over a week left in spring training, the Tigers have received a partial answer for right-hander Mike Fiers’ struggles: He is dealing with a back issue.

What exactly that issue is or how it will affect the team’s rotation plans entering the season remains to be seen, but manager Ron Gardenhire said Sunday afternoon that Fiers recently underwent a series of tests on his back.

“There’s nothing really too awful, anything more than they thought it would be,” he said. “It’s not something that will make him miss a lot of time, anything like that. Now, it’s just, you gotta get him through this. We’ve had a conversation with him and we gotta get him through this.”

Fiers, 32, has struggled mightily this spring, especially in his first innings. In four starts, he has allowed 12 earned runs on 10 hits in 11 1/3 innings. He’s walked eight batters and allowed four home runs.

The recent testing opens the possibility that Fiers could begin the season on the 10-day disabled list, which would open a spot in the starting rotation. The Tigers have righties Jordan Zimmermann and Michael Fulmer and lefty Francisco Liriano penned into the starting rotation. Fiers, because of his one-year, $6-million deal, figures to be the fourth man, if healthy. The final spot is likely between lefties Matthew Boyd and Daniel Norris, both of whom have one minor-league option remaining.

“It’s spring training, he’s a veteran and there’s leeway there,” Gardenhire said. “The first thing is to make sure we know exactly what’s going on, that there’s nothing major here. Then, we gotta get him out there where he can do his thing and get right back in the rotation.”

Gardenhire mentioned the possibility of Fiers making his next outing on the backfields of Tiger Town before returning to game action. With a number of off days early in the season, a minimal disabled list stint could force Fiers to only miss one turn of the rotation.

“Because of his performance – everything was here, here, here – what’s going on?” Gardenhire said. “So let’s get him checked out and it sounds like the check-out came back pretty good, as good as it can be. We know he’s had this so it was good as it can be.

“Now, we gotta get him where we can get him through this. He should be fine. I don’t think it’s going to be any kind of a full-term deal, really short here, get him back in the rotation.”

But now with an injury factoring into the equation, Gardenhire sounded eager to see results before committing him to a spot.

“He’s already told us, ‘I can pitch with this,’ but we need to see results coming out,” he said. “Not the first inning flying over and it takes two innings to get loose. Figure out a way to get him started earlier.”